Locomotive driving-wheel or the like.



No. 819,199. PATENTED MAY 1, 1906. J. B. ALLFREE & I. G. HUBBELL. LOGOMOTIVEDRIVING WHEEL OR THE LIKE.

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APPLICATION FILED JUNE 14, 1905.

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PATBNTED MAY 1, 1906. J. B. ALLFREE & I. O. HUBBELL.

LOGOMOTIVB DRIVING WHEEL OR THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 14, 1905.

siren snares ATENT OFFICE. I

JAMES B. ALLFREE, OF IRONTON, OHIO, AND IRA C. HUBBELL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 1,1906.

Application filed June 14, 1905. Serial No- 265.230.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JAMES B. ALLFREE, residing at Ironton, in the county of Lawrence and State of Ohio, and IRA C. HUBBELL, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, citizensof the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Locomotive Driving-Wheels or the Like, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to means for balancing locomotive driving-wheels or the like.

. The objects of our invention are as follows: first, to provide a simple and eifectivemeans wherebythe driving-wheels of locomotive-engines may be so counterbalanced that the disturbing action of the connected reciprocating parts-such as the connecting-rods, pistons, and piston-rodsma be eliminated second, to so proportion an distribute the Weight in the hollow rim of the driving-wheel that the same, taken in connection with the cooperating reci rocating parts, will act the same and have the same effect as a fly-wheel and be in perfectrunning balance; third, to reduce the weight and cost of the drivingwheels to a minlmum by doing awa with the heavy counterweight which has eretofore been employed to counterbalance the reci rocating arts and which reduction in weig t will enab e a lower de es of com ression to be employed in the cy inders for t e smooth and at the same time moreefiicient running of the locomotive; fourth, to provide a form of wheel whereby one pattern may be utilized to form and equalize the weight of the main and the coupled driving-wheels in a locomotive having more than one pair of drivingwheels, and thereby attain a more uniform wear of tires, and consequently a longer period of service before they require to be turned, as well as to increase the hauling capacity of the engine and obviate loss of power through binding and slipping of wheels by reason of unequal diameters of tires fifth, to so provide a perfect-running balance and fly wheel eflect as to avoid the evils of nosing of the so-called hammer-blow on the rails and the bucking and uncomfortable vibrations of the locomotive when running; sixth,

to so construct the driving-wheel that one set of patterns will enable a wide range or set of wheels to be quickly and cheaply manufactured, and the counterbalancing can be ex peditiously effected or varied without disturbing in any way the form, construction, exterior appearance of the wheel, or unnecessarily extending the crank-pin hub beyond the plane of the wheel; seventh, to so construct the Wheel that the metal in the same is uniformly distributed, whereby in'itscasting from the molten metal the wheel cools evenly throughout, no blow-holes are formed, no unusual internal strains develo ed, and few defective wheels formed; eight to construct a driving-wheel in which the fly-wheel effect ma be readily increased or decreased and wit out changing the general appearance of the wheel; ninth, other evident objects and advantages of construction which will appear from the hereinafter-detailed description.

Our invention consists of structural features and relative arrangements of elements which will be more fully hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying two sheets of drawings, in which similar reference characters indicate the same parts throughout the several figures, Figure 1 is a view in elevation, with parts broken away, showing three coupled locomotive driving-wheels constructed with our improvement and the connected main and coupling or, parallel rods. Fig. 2 is a plan or to view of the same. enlarged etached view of a wheel in elevation with parts broken away to show the pockets in the rim for receiving the counterbalancing-weights. Fig. 4 is a section on line 4 4 of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings, 1 is the main driving-wheel, which is fixed upon .a main driving=axle a, which is con led to a front driving-wheel 2 and a back riving-wheel 3, which coupled wheels are fixed, respectively, upon a front driving-axle b, and a back drivwheels is rovided with pockets having distributed t erein counterbalancing weights embod 'ng our invention.

Whize we have shown and herein described our improvement with res ect to a main and two coupled driving-whee s, we do not care tolimit ourselves to this particular arrangement. As will be readily seen from the herelnafter-described structures and relation of the Fig. 3 is an ing-axle c, and each of the coupled and main elements comprising the invention, the driving-wheel is readily adaptable to locomotives which have not only two, but also more than three, sets of drivers.

Each of the driving-wheels 1, 2, and3 consists of a body or center having a central hub 4 and an enlarged rim 5, of special construction, to be hereinafter described, which are connected by spokes or arms 6 in the usual manner, and a crank-pin hub 7 is formed upon each wheel at a distance from its geometrical center equal to one-half the stroke of the pistons of the engine. The wheel-centers are encircled by tires 8, having the usual flanges 9, and the wheels are coupled to rotate together by the usual back and front parallel or coupling rods 10 and 1 1,. which are connected to a main crank-pin 12, fixed in the crank-pin hub 4 of the main wheel 1 and to front and back crankins 13 and 14, fixed in the crank-pin hubs o the front and back drivingwheels. The main connecting rod 15 is coupled at its rear end to the main crankpin 12 and at its front end to a cross-head,

closing the same after the counterbalancing" weights have been added. While we have shown thirty chambers or pockets in the rims of each of the wheels, it will be readily seen that this number can be increased or decreased so as to suit the particular purpose,-

and the size or shape of the chambers or pockets in any one wheel may be diflerent, if so desired-that is, several of the chambers on the side opposite to the crankhub may be made in one.

The manner of applying the invention is as follows: Having determmed or estimated the proper weight to be added to each drivmg-wheel in order to properly and efficiently balance the revolving and reciprocating parts which are connected to the difierent wheels, the same is divided up or distributed in the pockets in sucha manner as to have each .of the wheels as nearly as possible in perfectrunning balance-by takin into consideration the weight of the wheels t emselves and their connected reciprocating and rotary parts. In the drawings it will be seen that in order to compensate for the weight of the crank-pin, crank-pin hub, and coupling-rods a number of the chambers or pockets in the rim on the same side of the wheel as the crank-hub are devoid of counterbalancing-weight, and while in practice this is the best manner of effecting the invention a little weight may be added, if so desired, without departing from the invention, so long as the proper proportions are distributed in the other chambers or pockets and effect a counterbalancing of all the different parts heretofore mentioned. c It will be readily seen that with the abovedescribed construction of driving-wheel we have devised a wheel in which all the objects recited in the statement of invention are efficiently effected, and by disposing the counterbalancing weight almost uniformly in the rim of the wheel the same has the function and operation similar to that of a fly wheel in a stationary engine and approaching a perfect running balance. It will also be seen our invention enables one to produce a wheel that may be readily increased infly-wheel effect and is accomplished in case of a light wheel by filling only sufficient of the pockets or rim-chambers to add extremely-heavy wheel is required the pockets or chambers would all be filled, excepting a sufficient number on the crank side to produce the necessary counterbalance, or every other or every third pocket may be filled.

v It is obvious where locomotives have three sets of drivers the necessary fly-wheel effect may be obtained by lighter rims than where two sets are used, and, again, as one of'the special functions of'all excess weight added over and above which is necessary to put the wheels in erfect rotative balance is for the purpose 0 resisting compression and as the compression varies for different classes of service and different designs of cylinders and means of steam distribution it is obvious the ordinary method of constructing drivingwheels special wheels would have to be designed for all varying cases, while the flexibi ity or variability of the weight and its distribution enables all the above conditions to be quickly, cheaply, and satisfactorily fulfilled in a wheel constructedaccording to the .if at any time there appears to be an error in the counterbalancing-weights more weight can be added or deducted from any particular chamber without disturbing in any way the exterior ap earance of the whee removing the same 0m the locomotive, or uncoupling the connectin rods; It will also be noticed that the whee 1 has five chambers or pockets 16 without counterbalancin weight, while the wheels 2 and 3 have on'fy three. having additional weight in the connectingrod 15. Of course this ratio of filled and empty chambers may be changed in many ways, depending necessarily on the kind of transmission-gearing, number or distribution of the motive cylinders, and connecting-rods the correct distribution or proportioning of.

the necessary counterbalance, whereas if an v herein-described invention. Furthermore,

This is owing to the crank-pin'12 of the locomotive, and it will be readily seen that owing to the flexibility of proportioning the counterbalancing weights each wheel may not only be counterbalanced, but every wheel may be made the same in weight as each of the others, so as to insure uniform wear on all the wheels.

Having now fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. In a locomotive or the like, a drivingwheel body having a hollow rim, a plurality of pockets formed in the hollow rim and counterbalancing-weights inserted in said pockets.

2. In a locomotive or the like, a drivingwheel body having a hollow rim concentric with the hub, a plurality of pockets formed in the hollow rim and counterbalancing-weights inserted in said pockets.

3. In a locomotive 'or the like, a drivingwheel body having a rim subdivided into a plurality of chambers and means for retaining counterbalancing and variable weights in said chambers.

4. In a locomotive or the like, a drivingwheel body having a rim subdivided into a plurality of independent pockets and means for retaining congealed molten metal in said pockets.

5. In a locomotive or the like, the combination with a main driving-wheel and one or more coupled wheels, each of the rims in the body of said main and coupled wheels being subdivided into chambers and provided with means for retaining variable and counterbalancing weights.

6. In a locomotive or the like, a drivingwheel body having a rim subdivided into a plurality of pockets concentric with the hub of the wheel and means for retaining a counterbalancing-weight in each of the pockets, the center of gravity of said counterbalancing-weights being eccentric to the center of the wheel and on the opposite side of the wheel from that of the crank-pin hub.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES B. ALLFREE. IRA C. HUBBELL. WVitnesses as to James B. Allfree:

E. L. ALLFREE, GEO. H. DAVIES. Witnesses as to Ira C. Hubbell:

V. C. HUBBELL, GARNER E. HUBBELL. 

